HE  CmiHCH  n  MAllE 


ClasK  93   C.   C  S  4  Book    D  ^     ' 

Columbia  College  Library 

Madison  Av.  and  49th  St.  New  York. 

Beside  the  main  topic  this  hook  also  treats  of 
Subject  No.  On  page  I   Subject  No.  On  page 


^'/y. 


x 


THE  EARLY  HISTORY 


PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH, 


DIOCESE     OF     MAINE 


REV.  EDWARD  BALLARD,  A.  M., 

KECTOR   OF   ST.  PAUL'S    CHURCH,  BRUNSWICK,  ME. 


PORTLAND: 
PBINTED     BY     BROWN     THURSTON. 

185  9. 


_x« 


EPISCOPAL  CHURCH  IN  MAINE. 


The  early  history  of  the  "  Protestant  Episcopal  Church." 
in  that  portion  of  our  country  now  known  as  the  diocese  ot 
Maine,  records  many  events  of  varied  interest  and  value. 
It  affords  examples  of  perseverance  against  discouragement; 
of  opposition,  which  might  as  truly  be'called  by  a  severer 
name ;  in  some  cases,  sadly  successful  for  the  hindrance  of 
her  progress.  Yet  as  time  passed  lingering  on,  her  fea- 
tures assumed  a  more  cheerful  aspect,  and  her  present 
prosperity  furnishes  the  assurance  of  a  greater  prosperity 
still  in  reserve. 

After  the  discovery  of  New  England,  its  coasts  were 
often  visited  long  before  the  well  known  landing  on  Ply- 
mouth Rock.  Some  vessels  came  to  perfect  the  discoveries ; 
but  more  came  attracted  by  the  fisheries  on  its  waters,  and 
the  peltry  of  its  forests,  and  therein  found  a  rich  induce- 
ment to  hazard  the  perils  of  a  voyage  to  the  newly  found 
regions.  As  early  as  1577,  in  one  season  three  or  four 
hundred  fishing  vessels  came  to  the  Banks  of  Newfoundland, 
among  which  the  Frencli  and  Spanish  were  more  numerous 
than  the  Portuguese   and  English.  ^     In  process  of  time 

1  1  Belknap,  Biog.  Art.  Gilbert,  197.  Savalet,  an  old  mariner,  had 
made  forty-two  voyages  to  these  parts  before  1609.     Purchas,  p.  1640. 


57611 


4  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH   IN   MAINE. 

these  voyages  were  extended  to  New  England,  and  the  ac- 
quaintance with  its  coast  thus  acquired,  prepared  the  way 
for  its  permanent  occupation.  Maps  or  charts,  still  pre- 
served, were  made  of  the  shore  line  with  its  islands  and  the 
mouths  of  its  rivers ;  and  names  were  given  to  the  various 
localities,  either  derived  from  the  natives,  or  suggested  by 
the  taste  of  the  person  interested  in  the  survey. 

At  the  time  of  these  events,  and  in  the  early  part  of  the 
reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  aflfairs  of  the  English  nation 
had  attained  an  extent  of  prosperity  that  animated  all  de- 
partments of  its  business ',  and  bold  and  hopeful  men  were 
stimulated  to  turn  their  efforts  to  this  distant  quarter,  by 
the  novelty  of  exploration,  and  the  prospect  of  a  plentiful 
reward  to  their  enterprise.  In  the  latter  part  of  her  reign, 
a  royal  patent  was  granted  to  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  ^  which 
authorized  him  to  take  possession  of  any  countries,  "  re- 
mote and  barbarous,"  not  occupied  by  Christian  people,  and 
to  ordain  laws  and  ordinances  in  agreement  with  the  civil 
institutions  of  England,  and  in  harmony  with  "  the  true 
Christian  faith  or  religion  professed  in  the  Cliurch  of  Eng- 
land." Failing  in  his  first  attempt,  the  intrepid  navigator 
was  successful  in  his  second.  He  landed  on  the  shores  of 
Newfoundland  in  1583,  and  took  formal  possession  of  the 
territory,  extending  two  hundred  leagues  in  every  direction. 
Acting  in  the  name  of  his  sovereign,  he  promulgated  three 
principal  laws :  the  first  of  which  established  the  Church  of 
England  in  the  newly  occupied  domain,  which,  by  the  terms 
of  the  grant,  embraced  all  that  was  then  known  of  North 
America.  ^ 

This  impressive  fact  has  a  significancy  in  three  interest- 
ing relations.     It  was  the  first  formal  religious  act  in  the 

1  Hazard,  24. 
2  1  Belknap,  Biog.  Chron.  Detail  37.    This  action  was  several  years  an- 
terior to  the  claim  set  up  in  behalf  of  Neutral  Island. 


EPISCOPAL   CHURCH   IN   MAINE.  5 

whole  region  of  the  Atlantic  coast.  It  was  intended  to 
give  a  direction  to  the  religious  character  of  its  future  pop- 
ulation; and  it  affords  an  important  aid  in  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  subsequent  grants  of  a  similar  nature,  in  regard 
to  their  religious  bearing.  ^ 

After  the  lapse  of  several  years,  a  voyage  of  discovery 
was  planned,  and  placed  under  the  charge  of  George  Wey- 
mouth (1605),  who  landed  on  the  coast  of  Maine,  explored  • 
"  the  most  excellent  and  beneficyall  river  of  Sachadehoc,"  ^ 
and,  on  one  occasion,  had  "  two  "  of  the  Indians  "  in  pres- 
ence at  service,  who  behaved  themselves  very  civilly,  neither 
laughing  nor  talking  all  the  time."  The  attendant  circum- 
stances show  this  to  have  been  a  religious  "  service  "  of  the 
English  Church,  the  first  mentioned  on  the  coast  of  New 
England,  not  improbably  by  a  chaplain,  and  doubtless  not 
the  only  one  on  shipboard  on  this  coast,  in  connection  with 
this  enterprise,  in  which  the  setting  up  of  crosses,  at  points 
deemed  proper,  was  one  distinct  feature.  ^    /t^Uv  ^  ^  ^iM*/\ 

'i'>--p^9i,oa 

1  The  religious  design  of  these  early  voyages  of  occupation,  as  connected   Vit  PTII 
with  the  Episcopal  Church,  is  also  apparent  in  the  narrative  of  Frobisher's  '  .'.  '' 

landing  on  a  point  north  of  Labrador,  in  1578,  five  years  before  Gilbert's 
act.  Here  public  services  were  held,  the  communion  administered,  and  ser- 
mons preached  during  a  part  of  the  year,  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wolfall,  accord- 
ing to  the  usages  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  were  the  first  "  ever 
knowu  in  these  quarters." —  3  Hackluyt  74,  9],  quoted  in  Erobisher^  Mis- 
sionary, p.  244,  245.  y ,     .    ^   • 

iS  sacred  office'irom  ordination  by  the  hands  of  a  Bishop 
of  the  same  church :  and  that  these  acts  were  performed  at 


1  Rosier  intimates  the  like  in  the  time  of  Weymouth's  voyage,  p.  1 39. 

2  In  Hosier's  account  of  Weymouth's  voyage  (]).  139)  he  says,  ihat  Wey- 
mouth had  the  Indians  "  in  presence  at  service,  who  behaved  themselves 
very  civilly,  neither  laughing  nor  tallving  all  the  time."  This  would  seem 
to  have  been  a  religious  service  of  the  English  Church.  —  3d  seiies,  Mass. 
H.  Coll.  v.  8. 


6  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH    IN   MAINE. 

The  next  attempt  at  colonizing  this  portion  of  our  conn 
try.  then  known  as  Northern  Virginia,  was  made  as  a  sequel 
to  this  voyage,  under  the  first  charter  of  James ;  which  was 
granted,  among  other  purposes,  to  extend  the  Christian  re- 
ligion among  the  natives.  As  no  other  form  of  religion  was 
then  recognized,  the  Church  of  England  was  to  afford  the 
means  of  worship  and  instruction  to  the  settlers,  and  be 
the  means  of  enlightening  and  reclaiming  the  savages.  ^  Un- 
der the  protection  of  this  charter,  with  "  a  true  zeal  of  pro- 
mulgating God's  holy  church,  by  planting  Christianity,'*  ^  a 
colony  of  a  hundred  and  twenty-four  persons  left  Plymouth 
in  England,  in  June,  1607  p  and  sailed  for  the  Kennebec, 
under  the  command  of  George  Popham.  On  their  arrival 
on  the  coast  they  came  to  "  a  gallant  island,"  as  it  is  quaint- 
ly termed  in  the  ancient  narrative ;  which  proceeds  to  re- 
cord, that  on  Aug.  7,  they  came  to  another  island,  where 
"  they  found  a  crossc  set  up ;  "  and  on  "  Aug.  9,  Sonday,  the 
chief  of  both  the  shiftps  with  the  greatest  part  of  all  the 
company  landed  on  the  island  where  the  crosse  stood,  the 
which  they  called  St.  George's  Island,  and  heard  a  sermon 
delivered  unto  them  by  Mr.  Seymour,  his  preacher,  and  so 
returned  aboard  againe."  On  the  19th  of  the  same  month, 
"  they  all  went  ashoare  where  they  had  made  choise  of  their 
plantation,"  on  the  Sachadehoc,  '*  and  there  they  had  a  ser- 
mon delivered  unto  them  by  their  preacher,  and  after  the 

England  in  the  newly  occupied  domain,  which,  by  the  term? 
of  the  grant,  embraced  all  that  was  then  known  of  North 
America.  ^ 

This  impressive  fact  has  a  significancy  in  three  interest- 
ing relations.     It  was  the  first  formal  religious  act  in  the 

1  Hazard,  24. 
2  1  Belknap,  Biog.  Chron.  Detail  37.    This  action  was  several  years  an- 
terior to  the  claim  set  up  in  behalf  of  Neutral  Island. 


EPISCOPAL    CHURCH    IN    MAINE.  7 

sermon  the  President's  commission  was  read,  with  the  laws 
to  be  observed  and  keept."  "  Ri :  Seymour  preacher  "  was 
chosen  one  of  the  assistants,  and  took  the  oath  of  office : 
'•  and  so  they  returned  back  againe."  On  the  4th  of 
October,  certain  Indians  being  present,  ^  were  detained  un- 
til the  next  day,  "  which  being  Sondaye  the  President  car- 
ried them  to  the  place  of  publike  prayers,  w^h  they  were  at 
both  morning  and  evening,  attending  y*  with  great  rever- 
ence and  silence."  The  record  in  the  journal  for  the  6th  of 
October  states  a  "  fort  was  trencht  and  fortified  with  twelve 
pieces  of  ordinaunce,  and  they  built  fifty  houses  therein,  be- 
sides a  church  and  storehouse." 

The  valuable  testimony  of  this  coteniporaneous  journal 
establishes  these  following  facts  : —  that  the  first  known  act 
of  religious  homage  on  the  shores  of  New  England  was 
the  erection  of  a  cross,  by  an  earlier  navigator,  who  had 
respect  for  tliat  symbol  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  who,  by 
the  same  testimony,  is  known  to  have  been  Capt.  George 
Weymouth,  of  England,  and  a  member  of  the  English 
Church;  —  that  the  first  religious  services,  of  which  any 
knowledge  has  been  preserved,  as  having  taken  place  in 
New  England,  were  performed  by  the  chaplain  of  this  col- 
ony j^ —  that  these  services  were  held  in  accordance  with 
the  ritual  of  the  Church  of  England ;  —  that  the  minister 
who  celebrated  this  worship  and  preached  these  sermons 
was  a  clergyman  of  that  church,  deriving  his  authority  for 
his  sacred  office  from  ordination  by  the  hands  of  a  Bishop 
of  the  same  church :  and  that  these  acts  were  performed  at 

J  Rosier  intimates  the  like  in  the  time  of  Weymouth's  voyage,  p.  ]  39. 

2  In  Rosier's  account  of  Weymouth's  voyage  (]).  139)  he  says,  that  Wey- 
mouth had  the  Indians  "  in  presence  at  service,  who  behaved  themselves 
very  civilly,  neither  laughing  nor  tallying  all  the  time."  This  would  seem 
to  have  been  a  religious  service  of  the  English  Church.  —  3d  seiies,  Mass. 
II.  Coll.  V.  8. 


8  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH   IN   MAINE. 

first  on  an  island,  and  in  the  open  air,  and  afterwards  con- 
tinuously in  a  church  near  the  Kennebec  River,  on  the  west 
side  of  one  of  the  peniasulas  of  the  coast,  in  the  year 
1607,  ^  thirteen  years  before  the  landing  of  the  colony  on 
Plymouth  Rock,  and  sometime  before  the  Puritans  left 
England  to  reside  for  a  season  in  Holland.  -  If  the  fact  of 
first  occupation  is  conceded  to  give  the  right  of  continued 
possession,  and  if  chartered  privileges  add  strength  to  the 
right,  then  surely  the  Episcopal  Church  may  peacefully  en- 
ter any  part  of  our  wide  domain. 

Much  might  the  early  settlers  have  rejoiced  if  this  happy 
introduction  of  the  gospel  had  been  followed  by  permanent 
results.  But  the  enterprise  failed.  The  intense  cold  of  the 
first  winter,  noted  as  extraordinary  in  Europe  also ;  ^  the 
absence  of  all  experience  in  the  life  of  the  colonist ;  no 
mines  discovered,  nor  hope  thereof,  which  were  the  chief 
expected  benefits  of  this  plantation ;  the  loss  of  the  great- 
est part  of  their  buildings  and  stores  by  fire ;  and  the  ma- 
ny unforeseen  hardships  of  their  condition,  increased  by  the 
death  of  their  President ;  these  troubles,  with  fears  of  oth- 
ers, equal  or  greater,  constrained  the  whole  colony,  the  next 
year,  to  embark  in  a  newly  arrived  ship,  and  "  sett  saile  for 
England.  And  this  was  the  end  of  that  northerne  colony 
uppon  the  river  Sachadehoc."  * 

Twenty-eight  years  passed  away,  after  this  ineffectual  at- 
tempt to  found  a  colony  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kennebec, 
before  we  find  a  historic  notice  of  any  effort  to  support  the 
institutions  of  religion  in  this  quarter.  The  endeavor  was 
then  renewed  by  means  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  to  supply 
the  wants  of  the   first  permanent  settlers   on  the  coasts 

1  Sirachey,  Hist.  Travaile,  c.  vii. — ix. 
■2  1608,  6  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  155.       v 
3  Prince,  117. 
<  Stracbey. 


EPISCOPAL   CHURCH   IN   MAINE,  9 

of  Maine.  These  pioneers  came  from  the  counties  of  Dev- 
onshire and  Somersetshire  in  the  south-western  part  of 
England,  ^  while  the  far-famed  Pilgrims  to  Plymouth  and 
Massachusetts  came  from  another  quarter,  in  the  north  of 
England,  as  Nottinghamshire,  Lincolnshire,  and  Yorkshire,  '^ 
"  where  they  bordered  nearest  together."  So  that  this  fact, 
of  different  starting  points  for  the  emigration,  shows  why 
the  first  occupants  of  Maine  were,  from  the  beginning,  of  a 
different  mode  of  thinking  from  the  people  of  the  other 
northern  colonies ;  and  the  opinion,  that  the  Puritans  were 
the  common  fathers  of  all  New  England,  appears  to  be  un- 
founded. Here,  too,  we  see  reason  why  the  first  dwellers 
in  our  region  had  but  little  interest  of  feeling  and  action  in 
union  with  the  neighboring  colonies,  as  was  afterwards  de- 
clared by  the  ambitious  aims  of  the  latter,  and  the  ineffect- 
ual resistance  of  the  former. 

In  the  spring  of  1636,  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  under  the 
sanction  of  a  royal  grant,  established  at  the  settlement  at 
Winter  Harbor  on  the  Saco  River,  ^  by  the  agency  of  his 
nephew,  the  first  organized  government  within  the  present 
State  of  Maine.  The  rights  granted  to  the  patentee  of  this 
territory,  authorized  the  establishment  of  the  services  of 
the  Church  of  England,  and  gave  him  the  power  to  nomi- 
nate the  ministers  to  all  churches  and  chapels  which  might 
be  built  in  the  province.  * 

The  Episcopal  character  of  this  colony,  thus  intimated  in 
advance,  is  inferred  also  from  other  recorded  facts.  It  ap- 
pears in  the  design  with  which  all  the  early  charters,  pat- 

1  1  Belknap  Biog.  364. 

2  Morton  extracts  in  1  Hazard,  350.  Prince,  99.  The  two  principal 
towns  for  their  gathering  were  Gainsboro'  and  Serooby.  Palfrey,  132,  133, 
note. 

3  Folsom's  Saco,  24,  33. 

4  1  Hazard,  443.     1  WilliamsoB,  264. 


10  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH   IN   MAINE. 

ents,  and  f^rants  were  made,  and  in  the  persons  to  whom  the 
royal  favors  were  dispensed.  The  Dean  of  Exeter,  Dr. 
Matthew  Suttcliffe,  ^  was  engaged  in  the  enterprise  as  one 
of  its  friends,  which  secured  liis  interest  because  of  its  reli- 
gious bearings.  In  the  names  and  stations  of  others,  we 
see  reasons  for  the  like  interest.  This  is  especially  mani- 
fested in  the  fact,  that  when  Robert  Gorges  was  commis- 
sioned, at  an  early  day,  by  the  council  of  Plymouth,  to  be 
the  *'  General  Governor  of  New  England,"  at  the  same  time 
the  Rev.  William  Morrell,  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  was  sent 
over  with  authority  to  superintend  the  churches.  -  Though 
this  office  proved  ineffectual,  it  nevertheless  shows  the  in- 
tention of  the  patentees  in  England. 

At  Saco,  one  of  the  first  measures  was  a  provision  for 
religious  instruction.  A  subscription  (X31  15s)  was  raised 
for  the  support  of  a  sacred  teacher.  These  settlers  came 
to  enjoy  the  customs  of  their  fathers  peacefully,  in  a  new 
land;  and  therefore  they  were  glad  to  receive  (1636)  the 
Rev.  Richard  Gibson,  an  Episcopal  clergyman ;  who,  though 
not  taking  the  name,  performed  the  duiies  of  a  missionary 
in  the  new  settlements  on  the  sea-coast.  He  could  not  be  a 
missionary  in  the  strict  sense,  as  he  came  over  about  eleven 
years  before  any  Protestant  missionary  society  had  been 
formed.  His  first  and  principal  labors  were  bestowed  at 
Saco,  where  the  first  Episcopal  church  in  New  England  was 
established  with  any  permanence,  and  the  first  of  any  kind 
in  Maine  after  the  attempt  on  the  Sagadahoc.  It  also  ap- 
pears that  he  resided  (1637)  on  Richmond's  Island,  near 
Cape  Elizabeth.  This  "  was  an  Episcopal  plantation,"  ^ 
where  was  a  settlement  of  enterprising  men,  who  found 

1  2d  charter  of  Va.     1  Hazard,  60. 

2  1  Belknap's  Biog.,  367. 

3  Thornton's  Pemaquid,  208,  5  Maine  Hist  Coll. 


EPISCOPAL   CHURCH   IN   MAINE.  11 

here,  for  a  term  of  years,  a  profitable  business  in  connec- 
tion with  the  fisheries,  and  furnished  a  market  for  cargoes 
of  goods  sent  from  England  every  year.  The  tradition  has 
been  preserved,  with  great  probability  of  its  truth,  that  a 
church  was  established  on  this  island.  The  tradition  is 
confirmed  by  the  fact  that  in  1G48,  twelve  years  after  Mr. 
Gibson's  arrival,  and  in  the  time  of  his  successor,  vessels 
for  the  service  of  the  communion,  and  cushions,  were  enu- 
merated iu  an  inventory  then  made  of  property  belonging 
to  this  island,  with  other  articles  appropriated  to  the  use  of 
the  minister. 

In  extending  his  labors  to  the  neighboring  plantations,  lie 
became  well  known  at  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  where  the  church 
people  had  "  set  up  common  prayer  "  as  early  as  1639,  ^  and 
had  already  organized  a  parish,  with  fifty  acres  of  land  for 
a  glebe,  and  a  chapel  with  a  dwelling  for  the  minister.  -  He 
was  elected  its  first  minister  in  1640.  In  this  new  field  of 
employment,  he  spent  a  portion  of  his  time  in  places  out- 
side of  his  immediate  charge.  He  was  bold  and  decided  in 
the  utterance  of  his  opinions,  and  particularly  in  regard  to 
the  claims  of  Massachusetts  for  control  beyond  her  proper 
limits.  A  Puritan  minister  of  Dover,  by  the  name  of  Lark- 
ham,  provoked  a  controversy  with  him  by  preaching  a  *'  ser- 
mon against  such  hirelings,"  supposed  to  be  aimed  at  Mr. 
Gibson,  which  called  forth  a  severe  reply,  "  wherein,"  Win- 
throp  says,  "  he  did  scandalize  our  government ; "  who  also 
adds,  that  "he,  being  wholly  addicted  to  the  hierarchy  and 
discipline  of  England,  did  exercise  a  ministerial  function  in 
the  same  way,  and  did  marry  and  baptize  at  the  Isle  of 
Shoals,  which  found  to  be  within  our  jurisdiction,"  ^  where- 
in the  practice  of  clerical  duties  had  been  forbidden  to  the 
Episcopal  clergy,  by  the  laws  of  Massachusetts. 

1  1  Winthrop,  327.  ~~ 

2  Belknap's  N.  H. 

3  2  VVintbrop,  66. 


12  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH   IN   MAINE. 

For  these  offenses  he  was  taken  into  custody  5  and  after 
several  days'  confinement  in  Boston,  he  was  constrained  to 
acknowledge  the  jurisdiction  of  the  offended  government. 
Being  a  stranger,  and  about  to  depart  from  the  country, 
where  the  spirit  of  persecution  still  lingered,  he  was  al- 
lowed to  go  without  any  fine  or  other  punishment.  Larkham, 
his  enemy,  soon  after  followed  to  avoid  a  punishment  for 
his  bad  morals. 

Mr.  Gibson,  the  first  permanent  pioneer  of  the  church, 
was  described  by  those  who  had  no  ecclesiastical  relations, 
to  give  a  bias  in  his  favor,  as  "  a  good  scholar,  a  popular 
speaker,  and  highly  esteemed  as  a  gospel  minister,  by  the 
people  of  his  care."  ^  Others  have  represented  him  "  as  a 
man  exceedingly  bigoted."  -  This  opinion,  when  properly 
understood,  may  mean  no  more  than  his  open  and  distinct 
avowal  of  his  attachment  to  the  Church  of  England,  of 
which  he  was  a  minister.  He  liked  the  prayer  book  better 
than  any  other  form  of  worship,  (and  doubtless  said  so,) 
as  well  as  the  order  of  bishops ;  and  quite  as  honestly  said 
that  New  Hampshire  ought  to  have  her  own  government, 
against  the  grasping  claims  of  her  southern  neighbor. 

He  was  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  Robert  Jordan,  who,  as  it 
appears  from  the  genealogy  of  the  family,  was  probably  or- 
dained in  the  diocese  of  Exeter.  ^  He  came  over  from 
England  about  the  year  1640,  at  the  age  of  twenty-eighty 
and  at  the  instance  of  Robert  Trelawn}*,  who  at  that  time 
possessed  Richmond's  Island.  He  took  charge  of  the  dis- 
trict, which  had  been  occupied  for  about  four  years  by  Mr. 
Gibson,  and  thus  ofiiciated  in  the  present  Scarboro,'  Casco, 
(now  Portland)  and  Saco.  "* 

1  2  Winthrop,  66.     1  Williamson,  291. 

2  Greenleaf  Conf.  Sketches,  223. 

3  Hist.  Mag.,  1857,  p.  54. 

4  Hist.  Saco,  80. 


EPiscoPiVL  ciiuRcn  m  maine.  13 

Here  he  was  a  welcome  laborer.  For  the  religious  con- 
dition of  the  community  at  this  time,  east  of  the  Saco,  was 
decidedly,  if  not  exclusively,  in  favor  of  the  Episcopal  form, 
of  f^overnment  and  worship.  Indeed,  it  has  been  asserted 
by  a  writer,  whose  sympathies  arc  not  with  this  church,  that 
•'  Maine  was  distinctively  Episcopalian,  and  was  intended 
as  a  rival  to  her  Puritan  neighbors."  ^  The  charter  of 
Charles  I.  was  designed  to  perpetuate  the  same  order  and 
usages  as  existed  in  the  mother  country.  Even  the  Ply- 
mouth company's  charter  was  based  on  the  hypothesis,  that 
the  same  church  and  king  were  to  be  obeyed  in  both  coun- 
tries. ^ 

It  was  therefore  but  a  natural  fear  of  these  inhabitants, 
that  their  privileges  would  be  diminished,  when  they  saw 
the  beginning  of  the  encroaching  spirit  and  overbearing  ac- 
tion of  Massachusetts,  "^  whose  emulous  aspirations,  arising 
from  a  colonization  of  unexampled  energy,  had  reached  even 
to  Pegypscot.  *  ''  This  wary  government,  ever  watchful  of 
its  own  interests,  had  already  conceived  the  idea  of  pushing 
its  limits  into  the  heart  of  Maine,"  ^  by  the  same  special 
pleading  as  it  had  already  done  into  New  Hampshire.  ^ 
For  this  reason  the  people  here  began  to  protect  themselves 
from  interruption  in  their  enjoyment  of  the  usages  of  their 
church,  as  they  looked  for  hostile  demonstrations  against 
the  customs  of  their  fathers.  Anxieties  were  thus  awak- 
ened, which  following  events  increased,  rather  than  allayed. 
Many  of  the  early  settlers  doubtless  came  over  in  the  mere 
spirit  of   adventure.     But  it  would  be  a  stinted  measure  of 

1  Thornton's  Pemaquid,  175.     5  Maine  Hist.  Coll. 

2  2  Anderson  Colon,  ch.  145. 

3  Josselyn  in  Sullivan,  288. 

4  1  Williamson  290.     Purchas. 

5  Hist.  Saco,  60. 

6  2  Anderson  Colon,  ch.  142,  147. 


14  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH  IN   MAINE. 

charity,  which  will  not  allow  that  in  all  the  families  risking 
their  fortunes  in  the  enterprise,  there  were  some  persons 
who  cherished  the  spirit  of  religion,  and  attended  to  its 
practical  duties,  as  well  as  its  customary  forms.  ^  The  de- 
sire to  have  "  a  goodly  minister,"  (1641)  by  the  people, 
finds  a  place  in  the  records  of  these  times.  They  renewed 
the  institutions  and  laws  of  their  native  country,  designed 
to  promote  the  moral  and  religious  character  of  the  people. 
Penalties  like  those  at  home  were  inflicted  on  profanity, 
Sabbath-breaking,  and  other  immoralities.  2  They  forgot 
not  the  salutary  restraints  of  their  fathers.  A  law  was 
passed  for  the  encouragement  of  the  baptism  of  children.  ^ 
A  community  strictly  English  in  its  character  was  estab- 
lished on  our  shores,  and  continued  to  exist  until  changed 
in  its  features  by  the  extension  of  the  power  and  principles, 
both  civil  and  religious,  of  the  Puritan  colonies.  This 
community,  of  course,  preferred  the  ways  of  their  early  ed- 
ucation, and  had  no  wish  to  change  them  for  the  usages  of 
the  persons  who  left  England  that  they  might  avoid  the  cus- 
toms of  the  church  and  enforce  their  own  decisions.  As 
they  increased  in  numbers  and  strength,  they  endeavored  to 
widen  the  area  of  their  power.  The  occupancy  of  this 
province  came  within  the  range  of  their  wishes,  and  both 
the  civil  and  religious  opinions  of  the  people  in  this  prov- 
ince were  arrayed  against  the  effort.  ^ 

Mr.  Jordan  was  the  leader  and  counselor  of  the  persons 
who  clung  to  the  old  ways  of  their  fathers.  He  and  his 
friends  were  resolute  in  purpose,  and  confident  in  their  view 
of  the  right.  Sustained  by  the  favoring  judgment  of  his 
many  friends  in  the  community,  who  were  at  first  the  major- 

1  Hist,  Scarboro',  153.     3  Maine  Hist.  Coll. 

2  1  Williamson,  367. 

3  Gorges  in  Sullivan,  320. 

4  Greenleaf,  224.     1  Willis's  Portland. 


EPISCOPAL   CHURCH   IN   MAINE.  15 

ity,  and  possessing  great  influence  with  them,  he  encouraged 
them  as  long  as  there  was  any  hope  of  success,  to  resist  the 
manifest  design  of  Massachusetts,  with  a  singular  but  not 
unusual  mixture  of  religious  zeal  and  worldly  policy,  to  sub- 
jugate the  colony,  ^  as  well  in  its  religious  as  its  political 
relations.  In  order  to  have  the  pretense  of  right,  a  new 
survey  of  her  northern  boundary  was  ordered,  beginning  at 
Aqucdahtan  at  the  outlet  of  Lake  Winnepisiogee,  and  ter- 
minating on  an  island  in  Casco  Bay,  three  miles  east  of  the 
present  Portland. 

But  his  readiness  to  act,  and  the  prompt  aid  of  his  friends, 
did  not  ward  off  the  control  of  the  grasping  colony.  For 
in  1654  ^  he  was  committed  to  prison  in  Boston.  The  spe- 
cial reasons  for  this  procedure  do  not  appear.  They  may 
have  been  political.  But  from  subsequent  events  it  is  easy 
to  infer  that  his  religious  views  and  practices  were  both  the 
cause  and  occasion.  Emigrants  had  come  in  from  that  en- 
croaching quarter.  ^  Some  of  the  people  were  weary  of 
the  contest,  and  as  is  usual,  some  hoped  indefinitely  for  bene- 
fits from  a  change  of  rulers.  Thus  in  the  midst  of  the  agita- 
tions that  were  aimed  at  the  ascendency,  by  persuasion,  by 
promised  benefits,  by  military  force,  and  the  aid  of  the  new 
comers,  an  agreement  was  made  in  1658,*  which  gave  to 
Massachusetts  the  authority  to  rule  in  the  province  of 
Maine.  ^ 

It  was  not  long  before  Mr.  Jordan's  decision  of  character 
and  ready  action  exposed  him  to  a  new  assault.    It  is  on  rec- 

1  Sullivan,  323,  324. 

2  Willis's  Portland,  57.  Sullivan,  369,  says  it  was  1G57 ;  though  this 
might  have  been  a  subsequent  imprisonment. 

3  Willis's  Portland,  62. 

4  Willis's  Porthnd,  59,  60.  ^^  .  ^-  ."i 

5  Josselyn  considers  that  the  Puritans  in  Maine  asked  the  submission  to 
Massachusetts.  —  Sullivan,  70. 


16  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH   IN   MAINE. 

ord  that  he  was  frequently  censured  for  exercising  his  minis- 
terial office,  in  marriages,  baptisms,  and  other  acts.  In  1660 
he  was  called  by  summons,  from  the  new  and  intolerant  gov- 
ernment to  appear  before  the  General  Court  at  Boston,  to 
answer  to  the  charge  of  baptizing  three  children  in  Falmouth, 
"  after  the  exercise  was  ended  on  the  Lord's  day ;  "  and  was 
required  to  desist  from  such  practices  in  future.  ^  Five  years 
afterwards  his  friends  complained,  in  writing  to  the  royal 
commissioners,  that  the  General  Court  "  did  imprison  and 
barbarously  use  Mr.  Jordan  for  baptizing  children."  A  few 
years  later  (1671)  a  warrant  was  ordered  to  be  sent  out 
against  him,  requiring  him  to  present  himself  at  the  next 
court, "  to  render  an  account  why  he  presumed  to  marry  Rich- 
ard Palmer  and  Grace  Bush,  contrary  to  the  laws  of  this 
jurisdiction;"  when  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  did  any- 
thing at  variance  with  the  customs  of  his  own  church  or  the 
laws  of  England,  under  whose  protection  the  colony  had  al- 
ways been  placed. 

But  the  sectarian  spirit  was  strong  against  him  and  his 
friends,  and  the  power  of  the  government  gave  it  support. 
Sullivan  says,  "  the  Episcopalian  party  dreaded  the  tyranny 
of  Massachusetts  Puritanism."  ^  And  the  fear  was  not  with- 
out cause.  For  though  the  second  charter  of  James  (1609) 
declared  that  all  English  subjects  and  their  children,  in  the 
granted  territory,  should  have  and  enjoy  all  the  liberties  of 
free  citizens,  which  were  guaranteed  in  any  other  part  of 
the  royal  dominions ;  ^  though  in  the  agreement  recently 
made,  it  had  been  stipulated  in  the  sixth  article,  that  "  civil 

1  The  baptismal  font,  brought  by  Mr.  Jordan  from  England,  and  used  by 
him  in  this  sacred  rite,  is  still  preserved  in  the  family  of  one  of  his  descend- 
ants in  Scarborough,  where  he  had  his  house,  and  is  a  vivid  remembrancer 
of  the  troubles  that  met  him  in  his  walk  of  duty. 

2  Hist.  Me.,  321. 

3  1  Minot,  31. 


EPISCOPAL   CHURCH   IN   MAINE.  17 

jtrivile^es  should  not  he  forfeited  foi'  religious  differences  ;^^ 
and  though  the  king  of  England,  on  hearing  the  cries  of  the 
oppressed,  had  given  instructions  to  insure  a  more  libaral 
treatment;  yet  the  protection  of  the  charter,  the  terms  of 
the  agreement,  and  the  tones  of  the  order,  were  violated, 
with  a  dexterity  which  gave  au  apparent  obedience,  while  in 
effect  it  evaded  the  obvious  meaning  of  each  provision. 
This  treatment  proceeded  from  a  class  of  persons,  who  had 
professedly  left  England  for  the  American  wilderness,  to 
enjoy  liberty  of  conscience,  but  whose  exactions  declared, 
that  the  liberty  could  be  allowed  to  others  only  according  to 
their  own  rule,  in  which  church  and  state  were  united ;  and 
whose  conduct,  in  these  particulars,  was  more  distinguished 
for  its  boldness,  than  its  consistency  or  its  justice. 

It  was  in  reference  to  this  spirit  and  practice,  that  New 
England's  most  accomplished  historian  had  deemed  it  prop- 
er to  record,  that  ''  base  ambition  "  was  mingled  with  the 
schemes  of  church  government,  which  ^Massachusetts  was 
then  devising,  and  "  gave  a  false  direction  "  to  the  legisla- 
tion of  her  state  government;  that  "the  creation  of  a  na- 
tional uncompromising  church  led  the  Congregationalists  of 
that  province  to  the  indulgence  of  the  passions  which  had 
disgraced  their  English  persecutors,  and  Laud  was  justified 
by  the  men  he  had  wroiigedJ^  ^ 

Therefore,  under  the  influence  of  this  state  religion  the 
sufferers  found  no  effectual  relief.  Their  just  complaints 
were  heeded  abroad,  but  denied  at  home.  The  Episcopa- 
lians, in  the  places  where  Mr.  Jordan  was  received  as  their 
minister,  were  not  likely  to  be  soothed  by  this  treatment, 
so  unlike  what  Gorges  -  and  his  followers  had  exhibited  in 
this  quarter.  They  waited  for  the  time  when  they  could 
enjoy  their  rights  and  preferences,  free  from  the  capricious 


1     Bancroft,  450,  451. 
•i  I  Williamson,  306. 


2» 


18  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH   IN   MAINE. 

interference  of  their  rulers.  But  there  was  not  much  room 
for  liopc,  when  the  United  Colonies  of  New  England  had 
declared,  that  "  no  colony,  while  adhering  to  the  Episcopal 
church-communion  of  England,  could  be  admitted  to  mem- 
bership." ^ 

The  severe  restrictions,  however,  to  which  they  were 
called  to  submit,  at  length  produced  a  reaction.  By  a  peti- 
tion to  Charles  II.  (in  June,  1664)  a  royal  order  was  pro- 
cured, requiring  the  Massachusetts  government  to  make  resti- 
tution of  the  Province  of  Maine  to  Ferdinando  Gorges,  grand- 
son to  the  first  patentee,  -  or  his  commissioners,  into  his  or 
their  quiet  and  peaceable  possession.  This  order  was  reluct- 
antly and  slowly  obeyed.  For  about  three  years  the  change 
was  favorable  to  the  wishes  of  Mr.  Jordan  and  his  friends. 
The.  power  then  reverted  to  Massachusetts,  and  there  re- 
mained for  a  long  term  of  years. 

Amid  all  these  fluctuations,  Mr.  Jordan  resided  in  the 
present  Cape  Elizabeth,  and  extended  his  ministerial  care 
to  Scarborough  and  the  Casco  settlement,  now  Portland, 
and  elsewhere.  For  thirty-six  years  he  here  attended  to 
the  employments  of  preaching,  of  baptizing,  of  marrying 
the  living  and  burying  the  dead,  and  the  administration  of 
the  Lord's  Supper,  except  when  he  was  "  silenced  "  by  the 
ruling  power.  Complained  of  himself,  he,  in  turn,  with  the 
aid  of  a  leading  man  in  the  colony,  brought  a  complaint  to 
the  Court,  that  the  Puritan  minister  of  Scarborough  "  preach- 
ed unsound  doctrine  to  the  settlers."  "  It  is  not  improba- 
ble that  this  action  hastened  the  measures  for  his  punishment 

1  Williamson,  297,  (anno  1644).  This  enactment  was  made  in  that  spirit 
•which  led  a  person  in  high  position  for  literature  and  theology  (the  Presi- 
dent of  Harvard  College,  1673)  to  say,  that  he  "  looked  on  toleration  as  the 
mother  of  all  abominations." —  2  do.  277.     Sullivan,  314. 

2  Sir  F.  Gorges  died  about  1647.    (Hist.  Saco,  6')). 

3  Hist.  Scarborough,  154,  (anno  1659.) 


EPISCOPAL    CHURCH    IN   MAINE.  19 

for  baptizing  the  children  of  his  parishioners  in  Casco ;  at 
a.  time,  too,  wlicn  there  was  no  minister  but  himself  in  the 
settlement ;  as  indeed  there  never  had  been  before,  except 
Mr.  Gibson,  his  predecessor,  and  was  not  till  ten  years  af- 
ter the  act  for  which  he  was  punished.  So  far  as  history  or 
even  tradition  speaks,  he  was  the  only  minister  in  Portland 
during  the  long  period  of  his  service ;  ^  and  yet  he  could 
not  do  his  ministerial  duties  witliout  rebuke,  and  sometimes 
a  separation  from  his  family  and  imprisonment,  to  satisfy 
the  demands  of  the  offended  powers  in  another  province. 

In  the  Indian  war  excited  by  King  Philip,  he  was  attacked 
in  his  house  by  the  savage  enemies.  He  barely  escaped 
with  his  family  to  Great  Island,  now  Newcastle,  near  Ports- 
mouth, N.  H.,  leaving  his  dwelling  house  to  be  burned  with 
all  its  contents.  In  1677  he  was  invited  by  the  Governor 
of  New  York  to  settle  at  Pcmaquid,  where  he  had  secured 
the  friendship  of  Giles  Elbridge,  with  whom  he  harmonized 
in  religious  and  political  sympathies.  ^  But  he  declined  the 
proposal.  Old  age  had  now  crept  upon  him ;  and  he  de- 
cided to  remain  in  the  quiet  retreat,  which  afforded  a  relief 
from  liis  vexations,  though  he  had  been  driven  to  it  by  the 
violence  of  the  common  enemy.  In  the  memory  of  his  past 
troubles  and  hardships,  and  his  increasing  infirmities,  he  did 
not  return  with  the  people  to  the  resettlement  of  the  deso- 
lated town,  which  began  in  about  three  years  after  the  flight. 
After  a  residence  of  four  years  at  Great  Island,  he  died  in 
the  sixty-eighth  year  of  his  age,  (1679),  so  enfeebled  in  the 
use  of  his  hands  as  to  be  unable  to  sign  his  will.  ^ 

1  Smith's  Journal,  Appendix,  437.  [Rev.  George  Burroughs  preached  on 
the  Neck,  now  Portland,  previous  to  1676,  and  was  there  at  the  destruction 
of  the  town  by  the  Indians,  in  that  year.  — W.] 

2  Thornton's  Pemaquid,  259,  230. 

3  Willis's  Portland.  A  letter  was  written  to  him,  from  New  York,  by  Gov. 
Andros,  Sept.  15,  1680,  after  his  death.  —  Pemaquid  Papers,  42,  5  Maine 
Hist.  CoU. 


20  EPISCOPxVL    CHURCH   IN   MAINE, 

The  cares  of  his  active  and  uneasy  life  were  largely  in- 
creased by  his  attention  to  the  great  property  acquired  by 
marriage,  and  preserved  by  his  prudence  for  the  benefit  of 
his  numerous  family.  On  this  account  his  devotion  to  the 
proper  duties  of  the  ministry  was  proportionally  less; 
and  it  was  still  more  diminished  by  his  occupation  in  the 
civil  affairs  of  the  people,  as  one  of  their  leaders  and  mag- 
istrates. His  enemies  were  on  the  alert  to  find  charges 
against  him ;  but  never  in  relation  to  his  preaching,  his  doc- 
trine, or  his  conduct,  except  in  the  ritual  acts  of  his  sacred 
ofiice,  and  his  words.  Their  accusations  before  the  court 
were  grounded  on  his  expressions  of  hostility  to  the  gov- 
ernment whose  authority  he  regarded  as  encroachment, 
and  the  movements  he  made  against  its  claims.  But  the 
charges  found  little  proof,  even  from  the  lips  of  his  partisan 
foes,  and  before  a  court  composed  of  judges  representing 
the  authority  which  he  had  offended.  His  activity  and  en- 
terprise, combined  with  an  education  much  in  advance  of 
the  people  among  whom  he  lived,  made  him  prominent  in 
the  doings  of  those  early  days.  The  measures  that  bore 
the  features  of  a  bigoted,  if  not  revengeful  spirit,  on  the 
part  of  his  opposers,  prompted  him  to  take  an  attitude 
which,  under  kinder  treatment,  he  never  would  have  assumed. 
The  moral  state  of  the  colony,  through  all  thi:-  period,  was 
deplorably  low,  and  the  flame  of  piety  shone  with  a  feeble 
light.  Different  individuals  strove  to  improve  the  people  in 
these  relations.  But  little  good  could  be  done  among  per- 
sons who  largely  depended  for  their  livelihood  on  hunting 
and  fishing.  In  an  age  of  little  zeal  j  with  no  brother  in  his 
ofiice  in  all  New  England,  to  counsel  and  assist  him  in  his 
solitary  labors,  and  not  finding  or  expecting  aid  from  the 
sect  whose  forms  and  theology  were  of  a  different  school, 
the  minister  had  little  to  encourage  him  in  his  toils  and  tri- 
als.    We  may  lament  the  difficult  circumstances  in  which 


EPISCOPAL    CHURCH   IN    MAINE.  21 

the  active  portion  of  his  life  was  spent.  These  vexations 
gave  his  faults  prominence,  when  under  the  favorable  condi- 
tion of  the  present  day  they  would  hardly  have  been 
known. 

A  long  term  of  years  now  passed  away,  in  which  period, 
Indian  wars  produced  their  bloody  devastations.  In  1690, 
after  the  siege  of  a  week,  the  last  fort  in  Falmouth  surren- 
dered to  the  united  forces  of  the  French  and  Indians.  Many 
of  its  defenders  were  killed.  Others  were  carried  to  Que- 
bec, and  the  settlement  destroyed.  Mather  truly  described 
the  desolation  of  the  sad  scene  in  two  words,  —  "Deserted 
Casco."     It  lay  in  ruins  about  sixteen  years. 

During  this  interval  the  religious  interests  of  the  people 
at  Peniaquid  were  not  overlooked  by  the  friends  of  that 
settlement.  In  the  instructions  for  that  place  given  in  1683, 
it  is  declared  to  be  "  requisite  for  the  promoting  of  piety, 
that  a  person  be  appointed  by  the  commissioners  to  read 
prayers  and  the  holy  scriptures."  ^  At  this  time  a  large 
portion  of  the  residents  had  come  from  New  York,  under 
wliose  government  the  plantation  was  placed,  and  these  in- 
structions show  the  Episcopal  character  of  the  people  at 
Pemaquid. 

The  proof  that  this  purpose  was  carried  out  is  found  in  a 
manuscript  petition  still  preserved,  addressed  to  Gov.  An- 
dros,  when  he  stopped  at  Pemaquid,  in  April,  1688,  on  his 
expedition  to  Castine.  From  this  it  appears  that  John 
Gyles,  the  petitioner,  "  ever  since  June  last,  had  read  prayers 
at  the  garrison,  on  "Wednesdays  and  Fridays,  and  had  not 
received  anything  for  it."  He  therefore  solicited  the  gov- 
ernor's aid,  and  a  compensation,  that  he  might  continue  to 
officiate  as  before.  Tliese  duties  to  the  soldiers  appear  to 
have  been  additional  to  the  regular  services  on  the  Lord's 
day.  ^  

1  Pemaquid  Papers,  79,  80. 

2  MS.  petition  in  possession  of  John  McKeen,  Esq. 


22  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH   IN   MAINE. 

The  first  notice  of  the  renewal  of  the  services  of  the 
church  in  Falmouth,  now  Portland,  occurs  in  the  journal  of 
the  Congregational  minister  of  the  place  in  1754,  seventy- 
nine  years  after  the  departure  of  Mr.  Jordan,  a  period  of 
more  than  two  generations.  Four  times  had  peace  been 
followed  by  war  during  this  space ;  and  the  place  was  now 
peopled  by  a  large  number  of  settlers,  notwithstanding  the 
former  changes  and  discouragements.  At  this  date,  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Brockwell,  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Boston, 
attended  Governor  Shirley  as  the  chaplain  of  his  expedi- 
tion, to  hold  a  council  with  the  Norridgcwock  Indians  at 
Falmouth.  He  preached  in  the  Congregational  house  in 
the  morning;  and  it  is  added  quaintly  in  the- journal,  '-'he 
carried  on  in  the  church  form."  A  fortnight  after  he 
preached  again,  and  the  record  reads,  ''  he  gave  great  of- 
ense  as  to  his  doctrine,"  which  might  have  been  expressive 
of  the  views  of  his  own  church. 

Ten  years  then  elapsed  without  a  record ;  and  then  (1764) 
we  find  that  a  large  number  of  persons  declared  in  writing 
their  desire  that  the  new  meeting-house  about  to  be  erected 
in  Falmouth  should  be  devoted  to  public  worship  according 
to  the  Church  of  England.  This  movement  was  made  by 
the  Church  people,  and  a  portion  of  the  Congregationalists 
who  were  dissatisfied  with  the  settlement  of  a  colleague  to 
their  minister.  At  this  juncture  of  affairs,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Hooper  of  Trinity  Church,  Boston,  made  a  visit  to  the 
place.  He  preached,  and  baptized  several  children.  The 
congregation  at  once  entered  on  their  plan  of  operations, 
with  a  decision  both  unexpected  and  fruitful  in  results.  The 
accession  to  their  numbers  occurred  on  the  twenty-third  of 
July,  and  on  the  third  of  September  the  corner  stone  of  the 
first  Episcopal  church  was  laid  by  the  wardens,  who,  with 
the  other  officers,  had  been  chosen  in  the  earlier  part  of  the 
same  day.     From  this  beginning  there  appeared  the  next 


EPISCOPAL   CHURCH   IN   MAINE. 


23 


year  the  fiaislied  structure,  witli  tower  and  bell.  In  close 
relation  to  this  prosperity,  an  event  occurred  which  oc- 
casioned great  surprise  to  the  community,  and  added 
new  strength  to  the  part  of  the  church.  The  Rev.  John 
Wiswall,  a  graduate  of  Harvard  University,  who  had  been 
settled  (in  1756)  over  the  New  Casco  Parish,  suddenly  de- 
clared for  the  Church  of  England,  and  immediately  accepted 
a  call  to  be  tlie  minister  of  the  collected  Churchmen.  ^ 
Many,  and  indeed  the  majority  of  the  people  uniting  in  this 
act,  had  been  attendants  on  his  ministrations ;  and  the 
church  people  had  previously,  as  well  as  now,  endeavored 
to  persuade  him  to  the  change,  which  he  made  without  pas- 
sing through  "  the  usual  ecclesiastical  formalities."  ^  For 
a  few  Sundays  he  conducted  the  worship  as  well  as  he  could, 
without  Episcopal  ordination.  On  the  eighth  of  October 
he  "sailed  in  the  mast  ship  "  for  England.  He  there  re- 
ceived autliority  to  administer  the  ordinances  of  religion 
according  to  the  order  of  the  English  Church.  He  returned 
in  May  following,  and  was  the  first  rector  of  the  parish,  as 
a  missionary,  aided  to  the  amount  of  twenty  pounds  per 
annum,  by  the  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel  in  For- 
eign Parts.  A  hundred  pounds,  lawful  money,  was  voted 
by  his  people  for  his  support.  At  first  the  persons  who 
had  seceded,  were  required  to  pay  the  usual  tax  to  the  old 
society ;  but  after  bearing  this  burden  for  eight  years,  and 
one  hundred  persons  reclaiming  against  it,  a  vote  of  that 
society  was  passed,  by  which  the  money  thus  raised  was  re- 
funded to  the  parish  where  the  tax  justly  belonged.  The 
increase  of  the  church  is  indicated  by  the  amount  of  this 
taxation.     In  1765  it  was  forty- three  pounds  seven  shillings 

1  "  There  is  a  sad  uproar  about  Wiswall,  who  has  declared  for  the  church.'* 
Smith's  Journal,  200. 

^Greenleaf,  41. 


24  EPISCOPAL   CIIURCH   IN   MAINE. 

ten  pence;  in  1774  it  was  one  hundred  and  nine  pounds  six 
shillings  nine  pence. 

The  next  year  after  the  rector's  return,  he  reported  to 
the  society  in  England,  that  his  congregation  had  increased 
to  seventy  families,  who  constantly  attended  worship,  with 
a  considerable  number  of  strangers  and  twenty-one  commu- 
nicants. 

It  is  not  purposed  to  pursue  the  history  of  the  mission 
in  Portland  any  further.  It  would  be  interesting  to  de- 
scribe its  progress  through  its  various  fluctuations  of  pros- 
perous and  adverse  changes,  —  the  destruction  of  its  church 
by  the  fire  of  the  British  war-ships,  followed  by  the  disper- 
sion of  the  congregation, —  its  rebuilding  twelve  years 
afterwards,  when  only  twenty  persons  subscribed  for  a 
weekly  payment  to  support  a  clergyman,  who  was  allowed 
to  preach  three  Sundays  in  a  year  at  Windham,  ^  where 
some  of  the  members  of  the  church  resided; — its  incor- 
poration as  a  parish  in  1791,  —  the  exchange  of  this  building 
for  a  new  brick  structure,  (1802)  and  the  later  improvement 
and  enlargement  to  accommodate  its  increasing  congrega- 
tion. Another  church  has  sprung  from  it  as  an  offshoot, 
in  strong  and  efficient  growth,  with  its  impressive  edifice  of 
stone ;  while  both  parishes  now  have  a  condition  of  pros- 
perity, in  marvelous  contrast  with  the  hardships  and  trials 
endured  by  the  friends  of  the  church  through  the  chief  part 
of  the  previous  two  centuries. 

From  the  settlement  on  Casco  Bay  we  now  turn  to  the 
Kennebec. 

Efforts  had  been  made  by  the  Romish  priest,  a  missionary 
to  the  Indians  near  the  present  Augusta,  to  persuade  the 
settlers  at  Frankfort  on  this  river,  to  remove  to  an  abode 
near  to  his  influence  and  instruction.  As  an  inducement,  he 
ofiered  each  man  two  hundred  acres  of  land.     They  refused 

1  Greenleaf,  225. 


EPISCOPAL   CHURCH   DT   MAEsTl.  25 

the  solicitation.     Tliis  movement  led  to  the  construction  of 
the  forts  at  Augusta  and  Winslow.  ^ 

The  date  of  the  commencement  of  the  enterprise  on  this 
river,  carries  our  thoughts  back  to  the  year  1754,  when  the 
people  at  Georgetown,  aided  by  their  friends  at  Frankfort, 
now  Dresden,  sent  a  petition  to  "  The  Society  for  Propa- 
gating the  Gospel,"  asking  for  the  services  of  a  missionary. 
•The  Rev.  Mr.  Macclenachan  was  appointed,  with  a  stipend 
of  fifty  pounds  from  the  society.  He  had  already  officiated 
in  the  first  of  these  places  as  a  Presbyterian  minister.  He 
had  afterwards  received  Episcopal  ordination  in  England, 
and  soon  after  came  to  supply  the  wants  of  these  two  scat- 
tered plantations.  He  arrived  on  the  Kennebec  in  the 
spring  of  1756,  having  been  recommended  on  account  of 
his  "  uncommon  fortitude,  and- mind  cheerfully  disposed  to 
imdergo  the  difficulties  and  dangers  of  the  mission."  He 
went  to  Fort  Richmond,  ^  on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  just 
north  of  the  present  village  of  the  same  name.  This  place 
was  the  most  convenient  point  from  which  to  prosecute  his 
labors.  The  building  was  old  and  uncomfortable,  where 
the  wind,  rain,  and  snow  had  a  free  passage.  The  next  year 
he  wrote  to  the  society  that  he  had  often  preached  on  com- 
mon days,  as  well  as  on  the  Lord's  day,  to  an  increasing 
congregation ;  and  lamented  that  there  was  no  church  in 
either  of  the  places,  nor  glebe,  nor  house  prepared  for  his 
occupancy,  as  had  been  promised ;  and  that  he  had  made 
his  dwelling  in  an  old,  dismantled  fort,  where  he  had  been 
wonderfully  preserved  from  a  merciless  enemy,  to  whom  he 
was  often  exposed ;  and  added  that  his  head,  his  heart,  and  . 
his  hands  were  all  employed  in  directing,  encouraging,  and 


1  3  Maine  H.  Coll ,  274. 

2  Fort  Frankfort  was  on  the  east  side  of  Kennebec  River,  about  a  mile 
and  a  half  above  Fort  Richmond,  and  afterwards  called  Fort  Shirley.  —  1 
Williamson,  51. 


26  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH   IN   MAINE. 

fighting  for  his  people.  ^  Late  in  the  next  year  he  left  the 
mission.  His  subsequent  career  showed,  that  though  he 
possessed  great  powers  of  pulpit  oratory,  they  were  not 
sustained  by  the  solid  qualifications  of  a  character  suited 
to  his  sacred  calling. 

For  a  year  and  a  half  the  shores  of  the  Kennebec  were 
left  in  their  original  destitution  of  the  ministrations  of  the 
gospel,  except  in  such  form  as  protestants  could  not  adopt.- 
But  the  people  at  Frankfort  were  not  inactive.  They  sought 
aid  again  by  petition  to  the  society  in  England,  whose 
"  nursing  care  and  protection,"  for  a  long  period,  the  church- 
es in  this  country  enjoyed.  In  response  to  their  wishes, 
the  Rev.  Jacob  Bailey  was  appointed  to  occupy  this  vacant 
mission,  for  which  he  had  been  recently  ordained  in  Eng- 
land, after  his  graduation  at  Harvard  University.  The 
town  had  now  received  the  name  of  Pownalborough ;  but 
his  arduous  and  long  continued  care  extended  through  a  large 
territory,  containing  more  than  seven  thousand  inhabitants, 
in  which  the  majority  were  extremely  poor,  very  ignorant, 
and  without  any  means  of  instruction. 

The  new  missionary  arrived  in  the  summer  of  1760. 
Here  he  toiled  with  untiring  zeal  for  the  welfare  of  his 
charge ;  extending  his  efforts  to  Sheepscote,  Harpswell, 
Damariscotta,  and  Georgetown,  where  in  1761,  the  commu- 
nicants had  increased  from  seventeen  to  fifty ;  preaching 
among  people  of  different  languages,^  and  eight  different 
persuasions  ;  and,  amid  many  discouragements,  finding  much 
satisfaction  in  witnessing  the  good  effects  of  his  efforts  on 
many  hearers. 

After  ten  years  of  pastoral  care,  he  had  the  happiness  to 
see  an  edifice  reared,  thirty-two  feet  by  sixty,  including  the 
chancel,  and  though  not  completed,  rendered  serviceable  for 

1  Hawkins,  225. 

2  Hawkins. 


EPISCOP^VL   CHURCH   IN   MAINE.  27 

public  worship  in  the  fall  of  1770.  Near  the  beginning  of 
the  winter  of  the  next  year  he  moved  from  Fort  Richmond 
with  his  family  into  the  parsonage,  near  his  church,  where 
he  had  "  one  room  very  comfortable,"  but  was  obliged  to 
board  Ihe  workmen  till  another  room  could  be  finished. 

In  liis  labors  applied  away  from  his  special  care,  he 
preached  at  Gardiner,  where,  in  two  years  after  liis  own 
church  was  occupied,  he  saw  a  church  and  parsonage  erected 
at  the  expense  of  the  liberal  individual  from  whom  the  town 
has  derived  its  name,  and  who  had  generously  aided  in  the 
similar  enterprise  at  Pownalborough.  Amid  the  discourage- 
ments of  changing  times,  and  with  a  growth,  sometimes 
feeble,  and  finally  vigorous,  it  has  found  a  firm  friend  in  the 
inheritor  of  the  name  of  its  founder,  and  has  been  the  help- 
er of  almost  every  parish  in  the  diocese,  as  well  as  many 
others  out  of  it,  and  the  dwelling  place  of  the  first  resident 
bishop. 

It  would  occupy  a  long  time  to  speak  of  all  the  work  of 
this  "frontier  missionary,"  among  the  people  of  his  charge, 
where  he  found  but  few  inducements  for  perseverance  be- 
yond the  labor  of  love.  But  it  would  be  interesting  to 
repeat  how  devotedly  he  attended  to  their  welfare ;  how  he 
traveled  up  and  down  the  river,  sometimes  to  the  distance 
of  sixty  miles,  by  water,  or  on  the  ice,  or  through  the  wil- 
derness, and  most  often  alone,  to  supply  the  religious  need 
of  the  scattered  population ;  how  he  received  little  or  no 
salary  from  the  people ;  how  his  friends  in  both  towns  were 
compelled  by  tax  to  support  a  worship  which  they  did  not 
like ;  how  he  solaced  himself  with  his  books  and  ready  pen, 
and  the  care  of  his  garden,  which  he  adorned  with  the  taste 
of  skillful  cultivation ;  how  the  peace  of  his  life  was  con- 
stantly embittered  by  the  falye  and  malicious  representa- 
tions of  two  persons,  of  opposite  religious  sentiments,  in 
official  stations,  with  the  addition  of  the  most  contemptuous 


28  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH  IN   MAINE. 

language  and  actions ;  how,  under  legal  advice,  he  made 
concessions  to  them  for  the  sake  of  securing  his  church  and 
dwelling  from  their  rapacity ;  how  he  continued  in  his  parish 
duties  in  tlie  midst  of  all  these  difficulties  from  outside  forc- 
es, and  the  various  trials  of  his  patience  and  hope,  within 
his  pastoral  limits,  until  he  came  into  the  power  of  the  civil 
excitements  connected  with  the  war  of  the  Revolution ;  how 
unhappily  for  his  comfort,  but  honestly  for  his  conscience, 
he  decided  to  make  no  change  in  his  allegiance  to  the  ruling 
powers ;  how  the  enemies  of  his  church  and  king  harassed 
his  daily  life,  already  afflicted  with  the  most  pinching  pov- 
erty, amid  the  heart-rending  scenes  of  the  like  suffering 
among  many  of  his  parishioners  ;  how  he  lived  on,  looking 
for  better  times  in  faith,  with  a  few  clams  for  his  breakfast, 
hoping  to  find  a  dinner  with  some  of  his  better  provided 
parishioners,  and  disappointed  there,  had  refused  an  invita- 
tion in  other  places,  where  the  "  starving  children  were 
staring  on  him  with  hollow,  piercing  eyes,  and  pale,  languid 
faces ;  "  how  he  was  compelled  to  flee  from  his  house  to  es- 
cape from  the  violence  of  his  opposers,  and  was  waylaid 
near  his  own  house,  and  muskets  fired  on  other  persons  in 
the  dark,  which  were  intended  to  hit  or  frighten  him ;  how, 
after  enduring  these  and  other  like  calamities  and  insults, 
not  for  any  moral  offenses,  but  for  his  religious  and  political 
opinions,  he  was  glad  to  receive  permission  from  his  adver- 
saries to  leave  the  home  and  the  people  to  whom,  by  the 
associations  of  nineteen  years,  he  had  become  affectionately 
attached ;  and  how,  at  length,  with  his  wife  and  little  child- 
ren, cheerless  and  persecuted,  taking  a  final  leave  of  his 
once  happy  home,  in  the  needs  and  in  the  garb  of  extreme 
penury,  dependent  on  charity,  walking  several  miles  to  a 
boat,  which  was  to  bear  them  down  the  river  to  the  vessel 
which  was  to  carry  them  away,  and  with  many  a  long,  lin- 
gering look  of  love  for  his  native  country,  he  went,  in  the 


EPISCOPAL    CHURCH   IN   MAINE.  29 

spirit  of  a  martyr,  into  a  permanent  exile,  to  a  land  where 
he  knew  no  persons,  except  such  as,  like  himself,  had  fled 
from  troubles,  which  their  honest  interpretation  of  their 
principles  would  not  allow  them  to  escape  in  any  other 
way. 

We  cannot  dwell  on  these  and  many  other  severe  trials ; 
but  we  can  see,  what  he  could  not  see,  how  the  seed  that  he 
had  sown  was  not  lost ;  how  his  desolated  parish  and  church, 
destroyed  by  ruinous  hands,  have  revived  in  these  last 
years,  and  give  the  hope  that  they  will  not  again  be  molest- 
ed ;  while  other  churches  have  risen  around,  to  prosper 
under  the  guidance  of  a  Chief  Shepherd  who  has  his  home 
in  the  hearts  of  a  united  people.  Could  he  have  foreseen 
all  the  present,  he  might  the  more  willingly,  but  not  the 
more  patiently,  have  borne  his  bitter  bereavements,  in  the 
joy  of  having  an  agency  in  accomplishing  these  once  distant 
results.  He  was  a  pioneer  to  be  long  and  gratefully  re- 
membered. "We  cannot  read  the  rich  pages  of  his  life 
prepared  by  his  faithful  biographer,  ^  without  the  feeling 
that  the  hardships  of  the  present  day  are  but  lightness  when 
compared  with  the  weight  of  his ;  and  we  cannot  go  to  the 
place  where  his  feet  once  trod  the  busy  path  of  his  varied 
duties,  without  yielding  a  brother's  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  Jacob  Bailey. 

The  people  at  Georgetown  and  Harpswell,  where  for 
some  years  he  had  officiated,  and  a  portion  of  the  time 
every  third  Sunday,  were  supplied  with  a  missionary  by  the 
Society  in  1768.  ^  He  was  thus  relieved  from  a  portion  of 
distant  cares.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Wheeler  was  thus  his  nearest 
counselor  and  aid.  But  four  years  afterwards  he  withdrew 
from  the  mission,  where  the  members  of  his  little  flock  were 

1  "  The  Frontier  Missionary,"  by  Rev.  W.  S.  Bartlet. 

2  Boothbay  at  this  time  had  some  church  people.  —  Greenleaf,  134. 


30  EPiscorAL  cnuiicii  m  i^lmke. 

obliged  to  pay  taxes  for  the  "  support  of  dissenting  minis- 
ters," and  therefore  could  not  be  liberal  in  the  maintenance 
•of  their  own.  The  whole  burden  of  its  wants,  therefore, 
was  thrown  back  upon  the  person  who  had  borne  it  patiently 
and  long.  An  edifice  had  been  erected  for  religious  wor- 
ship ;  but,  like  the  congregation  that  used  it,  it  has  passed 
away,  to  be  revived  in  times  near  our  own  day,  in  the  more 
prosperous  parish  in  the  city  of  Bath. 

Not  far  from  these  last  dates  a  church  was  built  in  that 
part  of  Kittery,  now  known  as  Elliot,  and  fifteen  communi- 
cants were  reported,  as  belonging  to  the  congregation. 
The  services  were  continued  at  intervals  for  many  years,  by 
the  minister  at  Portsmouth,  and  appear  to  have  ceased  at 
his  death  in  1773. 

And  about  the  same  time  a  small  chapel  of  brick  was 
erected  in  Prospect,  near  Fort  Pownal,  with  the  promise  of 
an  Episcopal  minister,  under  an  arrangement  with  the  pro- 
prietors of  the  Waldo  grant.  But  it  is  not  now  known 
that  it  was  ever  occupied  for  this  purpose.  ^ 

For  a  long  time  after  the  Revolutionary  struggle  had  hap- 
pily terminated,  in  securing  our  independence,  the  church  in 
Portland,  after  its  revival,  and  in  Gardiner,  where  the  serv- 
ices had  received  some  interruption,  were  the  only  two  in 
the  District.  At  intervals  the  former  was  closed,  at  one 
time  for  years,  and  was  apparently  dead.  But  it  has  passed 
through  all  its  difficulties  successfully.  The  latter  was  kept 
open  perseveringly  (when  the  number  of  persons  attending 
it  were  included  in  about  twelve  families,  who  were  all  the 
active  friends  of  the  church  in  the  State,)  by  lay  reading, 
for  a  number  of  years,  in  the  absence  of  a  clergyman.  It 
was  also  regarded  as  the  place  where  application  could  be 
suitably  made  for  assistance,  when  the  services  of  the  church 

I  2  Williamson,  565.    Thurston's  Anniversary  Discourse,  1859. 


EPISCOPAL   CHURCH   IN   MAINE.  31 

were  desired  elsewhere.  Thus  about  the  year  1810,  the 
people  at  Waldoborough  solicited  advice  from  this  parish 
to  carry  out  their  wish  to  secure  an  Episcopal  clergyman  to 
fill  the  vacancy  in  the  Lutheran  pulpit  in  that  town.  But 
those  were  the  days  when  the  ministers  of  the  church  were 
few;  and  the  opportunity  for  tlie  establishment  of  a  pros- 
perous Episcopal  parish  was  lost,  for  want  of  a  laborer  to 
occupy  the  promising  field.  ^ 

When  the  State  was  again  separated  from  Massachusetts 
in  its  civil  relations,  the  ecclesiastical  separation  from  the 
Eastern  Diocese  followed  soon  after.  The  Convention  held 
its  first  meeting  at  Brunswick,  several  years  before  the 
church  was  organized  in  that  place ;  and  directed  its  early 
action  to  the  interests  of  the  missions  within  its  jurisdic- 
tion. In  1823  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Missionai-y  Society 
was  formed,  and  made  its  first  effort  at  Saco  in  1827,  one 
hundred  and  ninety  years  after  Richard  Gibson  had  been 
thie  first  preacher  of  the  gospel  in  that  part  of  our  country. 
Other  parishes  in  various  parts  of  the  State  have  since  been 
formed,  and  are  now  generally  in  a  prosperous  condition. 
An  account  of  their  origin  and  condition  has  been  published 
during  the  past  year,  ^  and  renders  further  mention  here  un- 
necessary. 

This  sketch  of  the  early  history  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  Diocese  of  Maine  is  far  too  brief  to  do  justice  to  the 
wortliy  individuals  who  gave  their  time,  counsels,  labors, 
prayers,  and  means  for  its  introduction  and  support. 

These  early  days  of  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the 
province,  were  the  days  when  European  cupidity  was  stim- 
ulated by  the  marvelous  reports,  carried  out  from^.Avild 
shores  by  voyagers,  to  enchant  the  imaginations  of  their 
employers  and  friends   at  home.     The  spirit  of  adventure 

1  MS.  letter,  R.  H.  Gardiner,  Esq. 

2  By  R.  11.  Gardiner,  Esq. 


32  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH   IN    MAINE, 

was  aroused  in  the  hope  of  speedy  affluence.  The  highest 
rank  in  society  yielded  to  its  attractions;  and  the  people  at 
large  were  filled  with  exciting  hopes  of  sharing  the  antici- 
pated gains.  Hence,  during  a  long  period,  we  see  but  little 
of  the  earnestness  of  the  Christian  life,  as  we  wish  to  see 
it  at  the  present  hour,  when  we  are  favored  with  a  settled 
government,  the  privileges  of  peace,  brotherly  influences, 
social  counsels,  saintly  examples,  and  a  gratifying  prosper- 
ity. ThcirC  pioneers  had  little  to  cheer  them  in  these  re- 
spects; and  in  their  hard  circumstances  may  find  a  plea 
against  any  censure  of  their  deficiencies.  If  they  had  been 
favored  with  the  greater  blessings  of  later  days,  we  may 
believe  a  brighter  light  would  have  shone  upon  the  history 
of  their  times. 


DUE  DATE 

W  ' 

nrT2^i9 

8/. 

V> 

201-6503 

Printed 
in  USA 

I   J 


< 

s 

=^IS 

a  J 

r^ 

(-D« 

oos 

Si 

^g 

H=1  < 

a 
Z 

3 

:  « 

BRITTLE  DO  NOT 
fHOTOCOPY 


